CBI grills Kumar, Ghosh in chit fund scams

Shillong, Feb 11 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday again questioned Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar and former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh in connection with the Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund scams.

This is the third consecutive day of questioning for Kumar by the CBI and the second day for Ghosh, who was made to sit face-to-face with the Police Commissioner, on Monday.

"Both of them are being examined and we don't know how it will long take," a CBI official said.

Ghosh, arrested on November 2013 in connection with the two chit fund scams and granted interim bail by the Calcutta High Court in 2016, said: "They (CBI) have summoned me. I have come here as per the Supreme Court order and I will cooperate with them.

"The CBI is interrogating the very police officer who grilled me. This is my moral victory," he said.

Ghosh had earlier implicated former Union Minister Mukul Roy, who has quit the Trinamool Congress and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, and 12 others in the Saradha chit fund scam.

On Saturday, the CBI interrogated Kumar for eight hours on charges of withholding and tampering important documents.

Kumar arrived in Shillong on Friday evening from Kolkata via Guwahati after the Supreme Court, while hearing the matter on Tuesday, directed him to join the CBI probe at a "neutral place" in Shillong.

He was accompanied by three senior state police officers - Additional Police Commissioner Javed Shamim, Special Task Force chief Murlidhar Sharma and CID chief Praveen Kumar Tripathi.